As a former member of the legendary Boogie Down Productions, D-Nice eventually made his own lightweight solo mark with an album and song entitled, They Call Me D-Nice.  His follow up album, To tha Rescue, didn’t get as much shine, and for two decades, not much was heard from the guy… until about two years ago when the Hip-Hop blog networks began its exponential growth.

With the muck and oversaturation of blogs, you had to do as much work finding a good blog to read as starting your own.  Rather than just dorm room college Hip-Hop nerds along with a few notable journalists and academics, artists began opening their own Blogger and WordPress accounts to speak their piece and even document their own experiences.

One particular blog post that grabbed attention was entitled, “My Run-In with the Infamous Larry Davis” by the man they call D-Nice [1].  This was an example of the possibility of the blog age: the ability for untold social accounts to be told [2].

On his blog, D-Nice began showcasing his new passion, photography.  During times where we see various legends struggling to connect to the newer generation and simply to make ends meet, it’s great to see someone like D-Nice re-imagining his work through a different artistic medium.  His style is social documentation, taking  influence from his and one of my own heroes, Gordon Parks.

When D-Nice began dropping his “True Hip-Hop Stories” series a natural progression was seen in how he captured, on video, the voices of stories untold: from Masta Ace, Monie Love, Buckshot, Dana Dane to Sadat X [3].  One of the more captivating THHS was “The Homeless Emcee”, telling a man’s bleak and painful story.  If you haven’t seen any of these videos, do yourself a favor and watch them.

The D-Nice Blog

[1] You know Larry Davis from various rap verses such as Kid Hood’s (RIP) “I’m wild like Larry Davis”.  For some word’s on Hood, listen to J Period’s social documentary epic “The (Abstract) Best” Q-Tip mix.

[2] And the ability for those musically obsessed with liner notes and behind the scenes accounts to cram more (trivial) information into their brains.

[3] While he talks a lot about “Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down”, the homoephobic hate crime suggestive lyrics unfortunately don’t get touched.

-Ninoy Brown

(Insert obligatory Eli Porter quote here)

Being that a few days have already passed, intentions to make a post about the Nike+ Human Race began to wane.  But upon making the daily blog rounds the past couple days, I saw little mention regarding the event that was boasted as the largest global run.  This was a reminder of the empirical fact that most bloggers tend to be lazy and out of shape [1].

2/3’s of FOBBDeep, Mark and myself, took part in the 10K run in Los Angeles, running from Exposition Park through Figueroa St to Washington Blvd to USC and back.  Beginning at 8:31:08 pm and with 12,000+ in attendance, Nike demonstrated how easy it was to sell $30 dry fit t-shirts.  As much as it was meant to represent global human unity, it was basically a free commercial shoot for Nike, where the extras paid to work.

Not to forget, the underlying theme of post-racial politics that was presented through the double entendre name of the event: The Human Race.  Nike wants us to forget the exploitation of third world countries, since we are all one anyways.  Kumbaya!  We can now all hold hands and eat granola together while we wear Nike products.

Okay, that’s enough cynicism, even for me.

Real talk, a grandly organized and fun event took place.  As a matter of fact, Mark lost his mobile and the human race came through to return it.  If this wasn’t a display that we should not lose faith in the human race, then I don’t know what is.  At the closing, Kanye performed for 45 minutes, even blessing the participants with an exclusive new cut.  Common came on midway through Yeezy’s set for “Get Em High” and did three solo tracks.  Even though he rocked the stage, just one word of advice to Kanye: Follow the lead of the runners you performed for and start running; your breath control needs hella work.

And don’t think I didn’t represent:

“Obama for mankind” -Young Jeezy [2]

To end: As a unit FOBBDeep = perhaps the most physically fit Fil-Am/Hip-Hop/political/pop culture blog posse.

[1]Actually, this might just be true for Hip-Hop blogs
[2]Problematic gender politics belongs strictly to the quoted rapper.

-Ninoy Brown

Last year’s Rock the Bells festival was unimpressive. 2007 brought the most high profile line-up by way of Rage Against the Machine. Yet with this, the vibe was destroyed as non-Hip-Hop head Rage fans claimed asphalt at McCovey Park and rested on blankets throughout most of the acts. Not to discredit Rage, but when your billing creates an atmosphere where a majority of the audience remains stationary and unmotivated during Public Enemy, The Roots, Wu-Tang Clan, it is an indication that a separate show would have been more suitable. Due to this experience, I held no anticipation towards the release of this years lineup, which I blame on Guerrilla Union.

My apathy subsided when I read the names of Tribe, Nas, and a reunited Pharcyde, leading me to embark on a journey to Shoreline Ampitheatre.

(more…)

You all know that website Stuff White People Like right? Well, apparently I must be mestizo or something because I get totally amped up about half of all those things on there. (Kinda confusing when high school sociology “scholars” were telling me that I was “trying to be Black.”) 

While I can’t argue against the notion that white people like hella shit, what’s great about that website is that it exposed the various ways in which likeness-by-whiteness is extremely differential. My profound shit will now be explained in the form of a list….

Stuff Filipino People Love but White People Don’t

1. Every food at Filipino restaurants that is not Pancit, Lumpia, or BBQ

Dear white people, I love that you’re taking a chance with our crazy food. But, I’m taking mental notes every time I see you order and I’m telepathically daring you to try some of the less photogenic dishes.

2. A nightclub with too many Asians

White people write memos. My guess is that these memos include a detailed map of ethnically heavy socializing zones. ‘Ever go to Dave and Buster’s on a non-Asian night? Straight up Twilight Zone.

3. Bay Area Cha-Cha

Its no secret that white people love dances that follow steps (hokey pokey = Soldier Boy). Bay Area Cha-Cha is what blasphemy is to ballroom dance. Don’t expect Romell to be teaching diamond techniques on the next season of So You Think You Can Dance.

4. Thugs

There’s definitely some kind of refined aesthetic to thug appeal that’s parallel to wine tasting. One qualifying characteristic is the quality of baldness at which accentuates defiance of the eurocentric hegemony of the Jesse Katsopolis or the AZN high-fade (exception to JC Chasez).

That’s all for now. Future Assimilation Persuasion posts will include the following… 

Annoyingly bad drama
Taking shoes off before entering a home
Baby cologne on grown-ass people
Saying goodbye to every person before leaving a room
Trans fat
Laughing loudly
Bootleg designer clothes and accessories
Returning items
Not using a dishwasher
Representing your area code (510!)
Solids in dessert drinks
Wearing sneakers at formal events

-Mark

Activism Right There. The closing night to a week of events at UC Berkeley celebrating the roots of Berkeley student activism took place last night.

Unfortunately for me, I arrived late and only caught the tail end of a panel discussion that included Jeff Chang and Bettina Abtheker. From what I was able to catch, I could tell that I missed an interesting interaction of multi-generational representatives from Berkeley’s activist alumni.

Spoken words were said. A middle aged white lawyer spoke about a redrafting of the International Declaration of Human Rights. Rappers and b-boys performed. Then dumbness ensued.

I have seen Amp Live, Zion MC, and Deuce Eclipse control the stage numerous times. Zion I has been a favorite act of mine to see live for quite some time, as they get hyper than a chondriac each time they perform. But to see the response in a large auditorium, as the Zellerbach, was insane to say the least. A mere six or so song set, filled with tracks from Deep Water Slang and True and Livin, was all it took for students/youth/Hip-Hop heads to generate enough energy to put PG&E out of business. And upon closing up a brief performance with the regional anthem “The Bay”, the stage was bum rushed in what was hyphy in its essence. Take a look at the photo above that barely captures what took place, as curtains came down in an attempt to prematurely end the celebration. Administration probably got scared shitless.

Now, this is the first on campus event/concert that I have attended at Cal, so I don’t know if this is how the campus always gets down at shows. Remember that I went to UC San Diego, a campus that throws concerts filled with elbow to elbow squarecrows, who wouldn’t how to have fun if boredom pointed a gun to their temple. I am not accustomed to such a crowd response on a college campus.

Berkeley, bravo.

Forgive me for the image above, the only medium I had to document the moment was the camera from my cell phone.

-Ninoy Brown

And this is the type of crowd the Cool Kids draw… in San Francisco at least.

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you probably already know that we’re supporters of the Cool Kids phenomenon. Hell, we’ve covered them more than once. And, we’re not mad at them for getting exposure through a Rhapsody commercial.

But when I went to catch them at the Independent last night in SF, I was thoroughly shocked to see the transformation of Hip-Hop shows as I’ve known them.

As uncomfortable as typical backpack rap shows are, with the minstrel show aura, generated by the sea of suburban skater kids from Walnut Creek, I’ve come to tolerate their omnipotent presence. At least these kids are doing their best to soak up a culture that they’ve come to respect, albeit questions of appropriation are raised.

Though, when I walked towards the ticket line of the venue on Divis, all I saw were skinny jeans and ironic mustaches. Fawk. I know I should have prepared myself, being that the Cook Kids generally make “non-threatening” rap music that appeals to the type of individuals who go to Kill Whitey parties because they are afraid of listening and dancing to Hip-Hop while around people of color. I guess I gave too much credit to the type of folks that keep up with artists who are hyped up by bloggers.

So a warning to those of you who plan to see the Cool Kids in the future. If you plan to go and you don’t fall under the hipster umbrella, please bring other folks of color with you, hell, bring some your White skater friends. Just do your part to weed the this hipster movement out of existence.

And I’m not even going to touch on the horrendous opening act that I saw.

-Ninoy Brown

It’s very rare that you see Filipinos portrayed positively in American news and pop-culture, and this story is just one more example of that. Recently published on Yahoo news is a story about an out of shape Filipino thief that couldn’t run from the cops and decided to call for a time out, which I might add is totally Hip-Hop (running from the cops that is).

Yahoo News Story on Filipino Time Out

Now my initial reaction to this was to laugh at such an outrageously stupid thief, but after I had some time to chew it over with my sociological mind I came to a different conclusion. I slowly began to realize that the media is always trying to make things racialized. Look back at the articles written about homeboy who shot up the college in Virginia and then count how many times they decided to mention the fact that he was of Asian decent or mentioned his Korean immigrant status. Track back to the story about the Filipino thief and think about what messages underly such a menial article when there are wars and other more important things going on in the world. Of course governmental bodies would love to ensure that the only impression that Americans have of Filipinos is that they are all out-of-shape criminals to legitimate their persistent colonial rule over the Philippines. Or maybe I just look too deep into things…

Well in other news, if you haven’t had enough of the retro 80’s movement yet, here’s another slapper for scrape. It is your usual Bay slap with synthesized noises, heavy base and playful lyrics about nostalgic fads.

The Champions - 80’s Back

-Mad

First things first. I decided to embark on an ethnography and took part in an EXTREME! activity by going with some homies and riding an all terrain vehicle or quad. From this I gained some more insight on why white people don’t dance and don’t need rhythm. They have too much fun with all these random thrill seeking activities to worry about feeling a beat.

So on to some non-me shit (kind of). Saw this in depth piece in the New York Times on the whole mixtape saga with the RIAA and DJ Drama the other day:

“Hip-Hop Outlaw (Industry Version)”

I’ve touched on the fiasco (no lupe) briefly, prior to the FOBB Deep era. Discussion surrounding the incident has continued, and the question of where the sub-culture’s destination will end is still up in the air.

I had an opportunity to interview the prominent mixtape team from the Bay, The Demolition Men, last week for the soon to launch online Hip-Hop publication, Iller Clip. DJ Devro and DJ Impereal both agreed on the important role that the fairly recent trend of Bay Area mixtapes have had on the Hyphy movement and the reemerging national interest on Bay. Folkers will have to wait until the article is released, but until then I’ll leave the readers with the very poignant words of Impereal, “Fuck the RIAA!”

Also, what’s with this Hyphy Hitz compilation? This Slate article, discussed the messianic presence of Hyphy within Hip-Hop, but used the aforementioned compilation to discuss the music. I’ll support Judy Rosen’s love for the sub-cultural movement, but at least offer the people a better introduction to the music, especially if it’s a bunch of tracks that have been out for than an hour. Though, I will agree that the tracks on the compilation were from what I would consider the “golden age” of Hyphy. A period where every other song didn’t have the word “dumb”, “stupid”, “stunner shade”, or “ghost ride”, in the title. A period where few random no-name artists would pop up out of the wood work to release one decent, yet formulaic, sounding jam, and show their real lack of talent by dropping tracks that would make “Ghost Ride It” sound like “Super Hyphy” (aye, I still appreciate “GRI” for what it is). Many producers have recently begun to get lazy, though I know that they still possess the creative juices that made the latter half of 2005/beginning of 2006 a period of brilliant “dumbness”. The producers just need to be able to get the back into some sort of mode where they are able to pump out fresh slaps.

2007 has it’s eyes set on the Bay to blow up. But that’s what I thought in 2006 once the video for “Tell Me When to Go” premiered on MTV and “Super Hyphy” had its brief stint on “Sucka Free”, and an excitement came over me like when my homie Jon found out Vin Diesel was at the video game awards (inside joke). We’ll just have to wait and see if this is the Bay’s year to once again invade the industry as well as the rest of the nation[1].

But back to this Hyphy Hitz compilation. If folks really need a good introduction to Hyphy shit, from tracks that have been slapped around more than… naw I won’t go there, pick up Ross Hogg & B Cause’s Slump & Grind mixes, Demolition Men’s Nuthin But Slaps mixes, or Mark Marcelo’s [2] Ignant Mix.

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[1] I’m pretty sure I’ve touched on this more times than not. But it bears repeating, cause we know it is more than capable of sustaining itself as a strong regional force, as it has ever since Too $hort released his 75 Girls cassettes.

[2] The other half of this site, once he gets away from being busy. (no promo)  I shouldn’t say shit though since he’s the one that had the technical skill to design and put up this spot.

-Ninoy Brown